November 23, 2013

Mavs must guard against the mile high altitude

DENVER -- Not only are the Dallas Mavericks playing a very tough opponent on the road in the second night of a back-to-back tonight in the Denver Nuggets. They've also got to guard against playing in Denver's mile high altitude.

The rare air in this city has been known to zap the energy from opposing players.

"The thinner air is a factor, there’s no doubt about that,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "Generally you rotate guys a little sooner on rotations –- a minute, a minute and a half, two mintes sometimes, it just depends.

"You've got to watch how they’re doing and how it's going, and my experience has been as the game goes on guys adapt a little bit. But they say you can't really adapt to this unless you’re here for two or three weeks.''

Thus, don't look for Carlisle to play anybody long stretches when the game tips off tonight at 8 from the Pepsi Center.

"It seems that guys do adapt during the course of the game, and then you've just got to be liberally about substituting and getting guys in and out and keep guys fresh,'' Carlisle said. "Because in the fourth quarter it's like a venom that comes, and if you haven’t rested guys enough leading up to the last six or seven minutes it could be very, very tough.''